The problem with this theory is that Governments combined (fed/state/local) already make far more revenue per gallon of gas than the "big bad oil companies" do. Many people already make "big oil" into some greedy, mega rich entity that make what they consider 'too much' in profits. However most fail to realize that government profits on gas makes "big oil's" profits look like peanuts.

According to WSJ, Exxon makes about $0.07 per gallon of gas profit, while Government makes about $0.50 per gallon (varies by state/local area). If this is true, the government brings in over 6x the profit from gas as oil companies do already. They do not need more. If "Big Oil" is frowned upon because of it's profit, why does government need even more than they are currently getting? And why do people not demonize them for it in a similar manner?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB...

But U-Verse isn't this good in all areas. I switched over a year or two ago as well from a 6Mb DSL line. I asked for the highest internet package offered in my area, and it is the 18Mb package. I also have VoIP/TV through them. In order to get enough bandwidth in my neighborhood for my requested internet speed + service overhead for Voice/TV, they had to give me 2 bonded lines already as they could only get about 15Mb total from a single line here. The bandwidth of the entire system is somewhere around 28-30Mb, but they reserve about 10Mb of it for the VoiP/TV, so I wouldn't call my internet connection over the new 25Mb limit as it's not. So far, they still don't offer any faster speeds here than what I have.

Even more frustrating, is the fact that even with a 18Mb down speed, my up speed is less than 2Mb. :(

Or they could go further, and require:
a background check, thumb print, and 10-day waiting period before you're allowed to download the app. You would also have to pay and take a 'cell phone safety test' prior to purchase.

Felons would not be allowed to download or have possession of the app.

Require Registration of the app, so a central database contains lists of all people who have the app (just in case they decide later to confiscate the app).

Make using the app in public (rather than your home) require a permit for 'Concealed Carry Waze' (or CCW for short) that is expensive, and difficult to get and up to the sheriff's discretion ('may issue').

Limit the number of reports users may make, like 10 or less (afterall, no one needs to make more than 10 reports, that would be 'high capacity reporting').

And if you get caught speeding or committing any crime while in possession of the app, it would tack on 'enhancement charges' to your original crime.

Try and make the 'pro' version of the app illegal to own, as only police and military need access to the 'pro' version.

There, problem solved.

It's the electronic equivalent of drivers flashing their lights at oncomming cars to alert them of a LEO running radar. That method has been done for decades, and is still popular with truckers these days. There is nothing illegal about it.

Funny story to go along with your "inflatable police cars". The city of Foster City here in the bay area, used to park empty police cars around the town in order to get people to slow down. The police car would be a normal marked car, parked on the curb somewhere, with a "dummy" in the driver seat. Each day, the car would be parked in a different location through out the city. Was the weirdest thing I had seen, as still to this day, I have not seen another city do this. I suppose, looking back, something like this would actually get traffic to obey the speed limit, without it turning into a revenue thing. However, after working there for a year, I noticed a lot of the locals and regulars knew about it, and would ignore it, so business as usual.

Rev Limiters only work on acceleration, but don't prevent over-reving due to downshifting. Try doing 80mph and downshift to 2nd gear, your rev limiter won't stop it from spinning to some extreme RPM, and probably breaking things with it.

In addition to that, it's usually not good to drive around bouncing off the rev limiter on a normal basis.

There are several trim levels of the Tesla avail, and only the highest performance one has impressive times for the price. Even then, your talking about another class of car at a price of $90K or more. To make the comparison fair, you'd have to stack that up against a Nissan GTR (2.8secs), Porche, or Corvette Stingray, and then you're in a loosing situation again with the Tesla. Heck a Camero ZL1 ($60K) can get better times than the fastest Tesla.

The 0-60 times of the next highest Tesla is rated at 5.4sec, which puts it on par with a $25K stock WRX still. Sorry to shine reality on the Tesla theory though, they are nice cars, but way, way too expensive for most people, and the performance per dollar just isn't there. To get the performance times you suggest, you're spending near supercar money.

If you think putting a fart can on a WRX is the best that can be done, you have no clue. I've done an engine swap, turbo upgrade, intake/exhaust upgrades, fuel injectors/pump, running higher boost than stock, and a custom ECU tune... While the whole exhaust system is 3" w/o CATs, the muffler is still the stocker on mine (so no fart can). If I want more power from there, I flip a switch in the cabin and open up a QTec exhaust bypass valve that makes it essentially a straight-pipe 12" after the turbo and is obnoxiously loud (like sets off car-alarms when you drive around). The upgrades I've done easily add well over +100hp to the stock setup. A "fart can" won't get you that.

The difference between the two, is if someone wants to throw some money at a car (that has a good base), then it can be made to be faster. The Tesla, not so much. Not sure what you could do to that thing to make it much faster other than over-voltage it, your stuck there. So what the Tesla is, is a nice car, that at the $80K trim level can be tied or beaten by a $25K car, and at the $95K trim level, can be beaten by other $95K cars still.

If you think your Leaf can accelerate "hard" and "faster than most gas cars", you haven't ridden in many gas cars with decent power enough to calibrate your 'seat of the pants accelerometer'. You may be right if comparing to a run of mill Corolla, or Yaris, but some of us have decent cars that would blow a "Leaf" away like it was in a wind storm.

Stock times for an affordable quick car like say a Subaru WRX (non-STI version - what I own) are 5.4sec 0-60, and 14.2s 1/4mi. time. Your leaf takes over 10secs to get to 60, and does the quarter in 17.7secs. That's a heck of a difference, and the WRX is cheaper by a couple thousand dollars. Put that money difference into performance upgrades, and WRX would be making sub-5sec 0-60 times, and sub-13sec quarter mile times.

DISCLAIMER: I picked a WRX to compare for several reasons, first I'm familiar with them as an owner, and have upgraded mine to make it faster so I know what I'm talking about. Second, the price of the WRX is close/comparable to the Leaf, so I was comparing apples to apples, rather than comparing a Leaf to a Porsche or Corvette that is in a completely different price point. There are other cars like the WRX that this would hold true for as well though.

Yeah, except try driving a manual transmission car when you can't hear any engine noise. Either the engine wouldn't last very long (due to over-reving constantly), or you'd spend the whole time staring at the cluster to know when to shift to the next gear.

many people, especially car enthusiasts, still like manual transmission cars.

"Theres something wrong with the radar sir...I've lost the sweeps, the bleeps, and the creeps.".

"The radar, it appears to be...JAMMED!"

"Raspberry, no body gives me the raspberry, except... LoneStar!"

Because the police have the power to put you in jail

Your arugument makes no sense... here is why...

The NRA and 2nd amendment "crazy types" as you call us, make the argument that regardless of what technology (surveillance or gun related), existed back when the Constitution was written and what exists now is irrelevant. It is what the spirit of the law written in the Constitution that matters. When it comes to guns, it means that citizens should be able to own modern weapons that are similar in spec to what the military of the time uses. Back then, the Military used muskets, so civilians had muskets, and now the military uses AR-15 type rifles, and why those should be allowed as well as other military type weapons. It's the purpose of "why" that matters, in case of insurrection, government tyranny, or foreign invasion, military type weapons would be required by the civilians that make up the state militia's.

Same interpretation to this type of technology, it doesn't matter if radar (or spy drones, or X-Ray devices) didn't exist when the Const. was written, what matters is the spirit of the 4th amendment, which discusses unlawful search and seizure without probable cause and a warrant describing the exact items that are being searched for. Technology is irrelevant, using this radar is a type of search, and is protected against in the 4th amendment. So is back-scatter X-Ray devices and other "pervasive" technologies that work from a distance like this.

Unfortunately, current car radar detectors only look for certain frequency bands. Most newer ones look for X, K, & Ka bands only (plus laser if it's equipped). I didn't RTFA to see what bands this works on, but I highly doubt it is the same as what is used by traffic cops.

As far as paint goes, what could work great, would be a paint, with metallic flakes in it designed to block and dispurse the radar. Unfortunately for both options (tin foil or metallic based paint), I also think there would be the unintended side effect of making it harder to pick up cell phone signal and WiFi propagation within your own home with a solution like that, so you'd be crippling your WiFi and Cell phone all the time in order to possibly cripple the police radar that may never get used on you.

"Let them eat cake!"

Gotta have the masses able to access the internet faster to entertain themselves while the country falls apart piece by piece. People might realize that we're getting screwed at every turn if they have to kill time waiting for their facebook page to load in the browser, or wait for that meaningless TV show to buffer... Can't have that happen now can we?

Have you looked into the ASUS RoG laptops. I'm not sure if the latest models still have dual cooling fans, but the G74 model from a couple years ago that I own, has 2 discreet fans/heatsinks for CPU and GPU. I'm not sure if the current model G75 still has the dual fan setup or not. It was one of the few laptops that I could find that had that feature (as 2 of my previous laptops died from overheating problems). It's a big heavy gaming laptop, but packs a punch and has been great for me in regards to performance and heat issues.

Another one too look at that I haven't tried personally but has a good reputation is the MSI GT72 gaming/media models. These are the MSI equivelent of the ASUS model I mentioned above and also have dual fan/heatsink design.